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%HTMLsymbol; %HTMLspecial; ]> bz.digest05.ART Chevron pulls out from 1,100 gas stations in East NEW YORK - Chevron will pull its name from about 1,100 service stations in eastern states, the oil giant said Friday. It's just the latest oil major to cut back on retail operations where profit margins can be razor-thin.

From The Aegis of Thursday, April 26, 1962: A disturbingly large leak of propane gas had Bel Air on edge 50 years ago this week. The news staff quoted a firefighter in the county seat saying: "Half the town was sitting on a bomb, but nobody lit the fuse!" A tank truck parked at Dallam Place was undergoing a repair to a faulty gasket when a leak was sprung and about 100 gallons of liquefied gas was sprayed into the air. Fire and ambulance crews responded to the scene, houses were evacuated and the area was secured for about three hours to allow the gas to dissipate.

"One voice! One community!" they chanted. And later, "Enough is enough!" As rush hour traffic passed by, dozens of people joined hands at a gas station near Fort Meade on Monday to remember a man killed this month while trying to earn a living. Rajinder Kumar, 49, was fatally shot Aug. 7 during his overnight shift at the Exxon station at Ridge Road and Route 175 in Hanover. A man came into the store, shot the clerk and took an undetermined sum of money, according to police. Kumar, who colleagues said sent his earnings to his wife and children in India, was Muslim; last week the Anne Arundel County Muslim Council chipped in money with the FBI and Metro Crime Stoppers to offer an overall $27,000 reward in the case.

The Q: Whether it's the telephone company or electric company, reading utility bills can be a mind-boggling experience. With words like "Interlata Carrier Name" and "Franchise Tax," it can be difficult trying to figure out what you are paying for exactly. Reader Jennifer of Baltimore was perplexed recently by her Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. bill. "Can you explain to me what the `gas delivery' charge on my BGE bill is?" she said. "I have tracked my bills monthly in Excel for the past few years, and the `gas delivery' seems to vary all the time - even on a per-day or per-therm basis the rate changes every month.

Route 108 in Howard County prior to Snowden River Parkway remained shut down in both directions at 9:10 a.m., on Thursday because of a gas line incident that occurred more than an hour earlier, according to the local fire and rescue officials and the state Department of Transportation. Howard County Fire and EMT spokeswoman Jacqueline Kotei said that around 7:45 a.m., a gas line was struck during construction operations in the area. No injuries were reported, and crews determined that the gas levels were not sufficient for an evacuation, Kotei said.

Maryland's second-highest court upheld Friday a judge's ruling that the Cove Point gas facility can be converted to be used for exports, siding with the company that owns the plant and against an environmental group. The Sierra Club argued in court that a 2005 agreement between the organization and the plant's owner, Dominion, prevents it from being used as a base for sending liquefied natural gas abroad. Dominion disagreed, arguing that while the agreement did not explicitly mention exports, it did not preclude them.

A theft this month of 311 gallons of gasoline from a station in Baltimore is one in a series of similar incidents, according to the station's owner, who says people have been disabling pumps and allowing friends and relatives to fill their tanks for free Mehdi Rezakhan, who owns BP stations in Remington and East Baltimore, said each businesses has been hit once, and stations owned by friends have been taken several times, one for 1,800 gallons of...

Lombard Street was closed for about three hours between Greene and Penn streets Friday afternoon due to a coolant gas leak at the University of Maryland Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. A contractor working in the basement broke off a valve to a refrigeration system in a tank that holds coolant gas, said the spokeswoman, Sharon Boston. The gas can be an irritant, so as a precaution the haz-mat team from the city fire department is venting the gas outside, she said.

THE QUESTION most asked of gas utility companies this year is: "Why is my gas bill so much higher than last year?" The answer isn't simple. This winter, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities nationwide faced an unusual set of challenges that directly affected what we all pay for natural gas. But in the final analysis, it all comes down to limited supply and increasing demand. The early part of the winter was much colder than a year ago, a reality that has made a bad situation worse.

ARLINGTON, VA. -- So it has come to this: A group of Senate Republicans has proposed $100 rebates to low-income people to ease their "pain at the gas pump." They also are entertaining the possibility of higher taxes on oil industry profits, as if government does a better job of spending money than private industry. Have they forgotten the last time government imposed a "windfall profits tax," from 1980 to 1988? Oil production fell (but demand grew) as "big oil" had less incentive to explore.